The future is here

Almost 15 years have passed since our readers held the first issue of Trade magazin in their hands. If I wanted to list how many things happened in these 15 years, and in the last 3 months, well, I am not sure which list would be longer. Winston Churchill said ‘If you are going through hell, keep going.’ The countries of the world are doing something similar in both healthcare and the economy right now. Yes, we have known from the beginning that this will pass too, and soon we are going to take a step into the future and put all of these behind us; the only question is, what will we lose until we take that step and will we win anything?

Where did we start from? There was a fantastic 2019 for basically the whole FMCG sector. It was just good for some companies and there were those who had a fantastic year – you can read more about this in the ‘Topic in focus’ section of the present issue of our magazine, as we are publishing the Retailer Ranking 2019 with numbers and lots of analyses. If last year was a good one for retailers, it had to be a good one for their suppliers as well, although there were differences among their levels of success too, and problems occurred as well, it is enough to mention swine flu, bird flu and other troubles, but at the same time 2019 was also the year of investments, development projects and innovations. A superb Christmas period ended the year and it was followed by an exciting and busy early 2020. Then the drama started and we were reading one shocking story after the other – and the whole thing isn’t over yet. In the next few months the pandemic might return in other parts of the world and in Hungary too, but it can also happen that we get a few years to prepare for a new battle. Perhaps if ups and downs are about to follow, just like in the economy that is working periodically, this bad time will be succeeded by a good one. The important thing now is to get to the end of the present as soon as possible, so that we can say: the future is here. I know that the future never brings just good things either, it is enough to mention the austerity measures, the special retail tax and the impossible expectations in a few fields, but let’s not forget that a few months were enough for certain domains to make progress that would be enough for years, and that our environment is in a better shape now than before the pandemic – perhaps all that money invested in sustainability wasn’t spent in vain.

The present issue of Trade magazin is the thickest of the last 15 years, and the digital version available in our daily newsletter and on our website for free has even more content. We have brought you everything that we usually do in the early summer issue, as this is our first May-June combined issue – we have tried to adapt to the changes this way. We are also reporting on some of the online events that we organised, and the rest will follow in the September issue. I am proud of the fact that our magazine was rewarded with several trade recognitions and awards even in the current situation – you can also read about these in the ‘News’ section.

To make sure that there is also stability in our world, we are already organising the Business Days 2020 conference in Tapolca. We will continue with our online programmes too, but there will be meetings in person as well, so let me announce that everyone is welcome at this year’s Trade Festival in Hotel Pelion between 22 and 25 September, where the FMCG market will hit the stage!

Best regards,

Zsuzsanna Hermann, Editor in Chief